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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23888590">Tired and Sore</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Exhausted_Sloth/pseuds/Exhausted_Sloth'>Exhausted_Sloth</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Fluff, Massage, Mother Hen Katara, Not Beta Read, Romantic Fluff, Tired Zuko</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 15:49:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>720</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23888590</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Exhausted_Sloth/pseuds/Exhausted_Sloth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Zuko is tired after a long few days of being firelord. Katara notices, and gives him a massage.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Katara/Zuko (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>74</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Tired and Sore</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The characters obviously don't belong to me! (If they did, Zutara would be canon, lol.)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Zuko hid a wince of pain as he shut the door to his chambers in the Fire Nation palace. He had spent the last few days going from one royal duty to the next, and between that and the Agni Kai he had fought the day before, his body certainly wasn’t thanking him. He sighed, carefully stretching his back as he made his way towards the bed.</p><p>
“Zuko, are you alright?” Katara asked, looking up from her book.</p><p>
“I’m fine, Katara. Just tired and sore.” Sitting down gingerly on the bed, Zuko let his head fall into his hands. Katara put a hand on his shoulder, gently digging her fingers into the muscle. He pulled away, hissing in pain. She gave him a disapproving look, one eyebrow raised.</p><p>
“I really am fine, Katara. I just need some sleep.” 'Not that I’ve been getting much of that recently…' he added privately.</p><p>
“Are you really going to be able to sleep like that, love?” she asked, kneading the muscles of his shoulder more gently, “I can help, you know.”</p><p>
Zuko hesitated, frowning. 'I’ll feel better later if I let her help, but…' His sighed, looking longingly at the pillows to his right, then glanced back at Katara. The concern on her face made his decision for him.</p><p>
“Alright.” Zuko whispered, leaning into her touch. She smiled at him, then gently tugged his shirt off and pushed him onto the bed.</p><p>
“I really should have made sure you took a break after the Agni Kai yesterday. Maybe you wouldn’t be so sore now if you had taken some time to rest.”</p><p>
Zuko groaned, remembering the duel form the day before. The firebender had been a young hotshot who believed that the war should have continued, and had decided to try challenging him for the throne. Zuko had subdued him without causing him great harm, and had sent him on his way after a stern lecture. By the traditional rules of the Agni Kai, he could have killed him, but the challenger was young and misguided, and Zuko didn’t believe that he deserved to die for that.</p><p>
“It’s not your fault Katara. I really should have been more careful.”</p><p>
Katara tutted behind him. He heard her open a drawer, close it a few seconds later, and then uncork a bottle. Zuko tried to sit up enough to look at her, but felt her hand on his back gently pushing him back onto his stomach. The hand left his back, only to return a moment later, coated in oil. Her second hand joined the first a moment later, and she pressed gently but firmly into his skin. He winced, trying to relax.</p><p>
“Let me know if I need to use less pressure, alright? I don’t want to hurt you.”</p><p>
Zuko made an affirmative noise. Katara began firmly running her hands up and down his back, looking for knots and trying to get him to relax. She carefully worked out all the knots in his lower back, and moved to his shoulders. Here, she found more knots. Gently, she began working on them, trying not hurt him. As she applied pressure to a particularly sore spot, Zuko grunted and tensed. She paused, gently working on the area until he relaxed and she could get the knot to go away. Carefully, she worked her way up to his neck. The knots were the worst there, and he flinched as soon as she applied pressure.</p><p>
“Sorry,” Katara apologized, “I’ll be as gentle as possible.”</p><p>
Zuko sighed, making a conscious effort to relax as Katara began kneading his neck again. As carefully as possible, she began to work the knots out of his neck. After she finished working on his neck, she ran her hands up and down his back firmly several times to finish the massage. Zuko melted against the bed, relaxed. Katara took a few moments to clean the oil off his back, then quickly cleaned her hands. She carefully pulled Zuko’s hair out of it’s formal style and ran her hands through it, massaging his scalp. Smiling, she watched as he drifted off to sleep. Using her waterbending to douse the torches, she curled up next to him and pulled the blanket over both of them. Strocking his hair gently, she too drifted off to sleep.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sorry if this is bad, I haven't really written anything quite like this before! A quick note on the mentioned Agni Kai: I'm not sure if canon ever mentioned anything about challenging the firelord to an Agni Kai for the throne, (that might have been from a fanfic), but I like it and it was convenient for the story, so I used it. The head canon I have is that challenges for the throne are to the death, while any other Agni Kai is just until someone gets burned. (I hope that made sense, lol. It's 2 a.m.) (Also, social distancing is messing with me a little bit... I miss being able to see my friends and hug them, lol.)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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